"Then they must change it. Oh, dear; and I wanted to get that waistcoat finished and put away to-night; it only requires such a little wee bit of wool!" Mrs. Ogden sighed.
Her face became suddenly very sad. Joan did not think that it could be the wool that had saddened her.
"What is it, Mother?"
"Nothing, Joan——"
"Oh, yes, you're unhappy, darling; I'll go and change the wool before lessons to-morrow."
"It's not the wool, dear, it's—— Never mind, run and get your tea." They kissed.
In the schoolroom Joan relapsed into silence; she looked almost morose. Her short, thick hair fell angrily over her eyes—Elizabeth watched her covertly.
CHAPTER FOUR
1
THE five months between March and August passed uneventfully, as they always did at Seabourne. Joan was a little taller, Milly a little fatter, Mrs. Ogden a little more nervous and Colonel Ogden a little more breathless; nearly everything that happened at Leaside happened "little," so Joan thought.